The Work "The Worst Of Everywhere" 2xCD Digipak (Ultra Gash Records)

Imported from Japan. FFO: Henry Cow

"Originally released as a C90 cassette in 1983, the music on this double CD uses low-fi recordings as they happened at gigs or in rehearsal and throws them together in cut-up and reassembled form to bring out their hidden beauty. No overdubs, but lots of ‘edits’ with the red button on the cassette machine. Like in dreams, the characters of many events are confused. The Work are Bill Gilonis, Mick Hobbs, Tim Hodgkinson and Rick Wilson, sometimes with Catherine Jauniaux; live mixing is mostly by Maggie Thomas, but some by Peter Bullen. You will also hear: Chris Cutler, Bob Vanderbob, Bob Ostertag and Jacques Jaminon – who did the worst announcement. The beginning of disc 2 is really The Woof, a special project for the Reims RIO festival in1981, with both Chris and Rick drumming, Bob Vanderbob on alto and some rhythm guitar, and Catherine singing of course – she does the high frequency glossolalia scattered throughout the tapes, and some alto sax corners. The radio-like bit also on disc 2 is from an improvisation recorded in the front room when Bob Ostertag visited London with his home-built synthesizer. All this was recorded from April ’80 to March ’82, in the UK, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia; deepest thanks to all our friends in these countries who gave bits of their lives to make this possible. All songs are by The Work or its members and are copyright protected. Exceptions are an unknown fragment of Belgian disco, for which apologies, and a quotation from ‘Kisses’ by Wilson/Fodder. Recordings originally compiled by TH, with notes and cover by us. This release is not intended as a concert recording or a documentation of what we were like doing a gig. It is made from cut-up cassette recordings with lots of tape hiss, distortion, clicks, peculiar balances, obscure vocals and general low-fi. Two documentary recordings by the group that are currently available are the ‘Live in Japan’ CD (which has Amos and Chris instead of Mick and Rick) and ‘The 4th World’ CD – both available from ReR Megacorp."